Patient choice fails to save 'brilliant' site

The Department of Health (DH) has axed funding for the Best Treatments website - the only comprehensive, evidence-based information source for the public on which treatments are effective. The site will disappear within weeks unless the DH has a change of heart.

Produced by British Medical Journal Group, with no drug company or interest group involvement, Best Treatments gives patients access to a jargon-free version of the information doctors themselves rely on - exactly the sort of information patients need to fulfil the government's policy of patient-doctor partnership in a "patient-led" NHS.

Officially launched only eight months ago, although it existed before that, Best Treatments now covers 1,500 treatments for 200 disorders and is updated whenever new research is published. Despite almost no publicity, it has been used by more than 2 million people in the last 12 months and is described as "brilliant" by the Patients Association (PA).

So how does its removal fit into health secretary Patricia Hewitt's commitment to "empower patients to make more informed choices than ever"? The DH has given the BMJ Group no reason for the removal of funding. The DH told Society Guardian: "Best Treatments was not widely accessed, and many other organisations have started to provide information to help people make decisions about their healthcare. So, rather than spending money on duplication, we decided to target our resources where they would be most effective."

"This is absolute folly," says the PA spokeswoman, adding that she has "learned more [about her husband's diagnosis] in 30 seconds flicking through Best Treatments than from any other source. And I know the information is reliable. You can spend hours trying to find reliable information and ending up in wilder and wilder backwaters of the internet."

The DH says it is developing an "information accreditation scheme", but the PA says it is impossible to regulate effectively. "Anyone can put anything on a website and you can't police them all," the spokeswoman says. "As a BMJ site, Best Treatment has inbuilt accreditation. The DH should be letting people know about it!"